My weekend was spent going down memory lane. From Death By Stereo on Friday night to Flatfoot 56 on Saturday, I was stuck wondering what year it actually was, and Sunday night seemed to be the cherry on top of that. I’ll never be the type to live in the past, but it sure was lovely to get lost in a haze of nostalgia for the weekend, and I loved that it ended with Hello Goodbye, Boys Night Out, and Armor For Sleep– three bands that soundtracked a whole era of my life.
Sunday night at The Varsity Theater in Minneapolis started with Hellogoodbye. It’s been about twenty years since I have spent much time with this band, and it felt like everything had changed with them, but, at the same time, it felt nostalgic. Hellogoodbye has always been on the poppier side of things that I listened to back in the day. Their boppy little love songs came complete with a charming personality and an infectious quirkiness to them. As the band played through their quick opening set on Sunday night, I still got that quirky-pop-leaning love song vibe from them but it came served up with a strong dose of electronic influence. I’m not going to say I hated it, but I found it interesting that, after so many years and with being on such a throwback kind of tour, I found it interesting that Hellogoodbye seemed to be trying to reinvent themselves during this show. It felt like they wanted to prove that they were not stuck in the past and, instead, have evolved over the years. I appreciated it, but no shame, my favorite part of their set was the final track when they went ahead and gave in to nostalgia and played their best song (that’s not up for debate), “Shimmy Shimmy Quarter Turn.”
From the lightest band of the night to the most intense, things quickly changed throughout the room as Boys Night Out took the stage. I was super excited to finally see this act again after nearly twenty years, but I was nervous that age may have gotten the best of this Canadian emo/ post-hardcore act. As usual, I worry too much. Boys Night Out seemed to dedicate their set to the OGs in the modest crowd with the way they were throwing it back all the way to their debut 2003 release, ‘Make Yourself Sick.’ Between the nostalgia that was brought up in my soul and the emotion I felt as the band played through “Medicating” from their 2005 album ‘Trainwreck,’ I was a bit of a ‘Trainwreck’ myself. I loved that the band focused on their old releases rather than some of their new material (which is still not super fresh as this band has been a bit defunct since about 2009 outside of a smattering of reunion shows and releases.
Boys Night Out was definitely an outlier on this tour, but they made sense on the bill. The nostalgia that they brought with them made them fit, but the more hardcore-leaning influence of their sound and the sheer intensity of their performance made them stand out. I both loved and hated the way the audience reacted to this. I loved seeing people getting into and moshing their way through the set, but hated the way others seemed to be turned off by this legendary band. Sure, I get it. Boys Night Out was and is not for everyone, but in the grand scheme of things, their contribution to the scene of the early 2000s is immense and important. It’s partially that whole “know your roots” kind of mentality, but I felt a bit bummed that they weren’t able to capture some of the audience. That could be attributed to how the vocal mic continuously cut in and out throughout the set, or maybe they were too heavy for this bill. Either way, I wouldn’t let it get the best of me. I closed my eyes and just got lost in the power and sentimentality of their set.
Much like Boys Night Out, headlining act Armor For Sleep took a break after being one of the bands that soundtracked a whole generation’s teenage years. Unlike Boys Night Out, I feel like Armor For Sleep hit the ground running when they got back together, and I’ve had the honor of seeing them a couple of times over the past few years. Just because I’ve seen them way more than Boys Night Out doesn’t mean I wasn’t stoked to see them on Sunday night. Sunday night’s show at The Varsity Theater was part of a tour celebrating 20 years of their album ‘What To Do When You Are Dead,’ and my heart was ready to be broken by this emotionally charged and beautiful album.
Armor For Sleep played the album from front to back to kick off their set but omitted two of the best songs on the album, saving them for the encore. I got why they did this. ‘What To Do When You Are Dead’ is a tender album with bursts of power to highlight the sheer amount of emotion that this band can put into a recording and a song. This made the beginning portion of their set feel a bit sleepy. That sounds like a bad thing, but, in actuality, it added a beautiful sense of depth and tenderness to the night. Their more whimsical and almost dreamlike songs from the album danced through the air as the entire audience seemed to tenderly sing along to the gut-wrenching lyrics, giving the entire room this sense of beautiful heaviness. It’s hard for me to put it into words (clearly), but it was one of those moments that, although subtle in the grand scheme of things, I will not soon forget.
As things started to ramp up for the encore where Armor For Sleep played through the two songs left out of the album playthrough (“The Truth About Heaven” and “Car Underwater”) along with a smattering of other tracks, including my personal favorite, “Dream to Make Believe,” you could see all of those emotions that come attached with Armor For Sleep’s signature sound come to fruition throughout the audience. People were lost in the music and in the words in such a stunning way. Some were singing along with their arms stretched into the sky as if they had been physically taken over by the sound, while others were screaming along to the tender words as if their life depended on it. I found myself quickly singing along to the words while trying to take in everyone else’s response, which created a whole ecosystem of emotions inside me. Here I was, having this slightly spiritual moment with a band that meant so much to me back in the day while watching other people who had the same experience and then some. It was everything I could have asked for from such a throwback band and such a beautiful and heartfelt performance from said band.
My trip down memory lane is done for now. The shows I have coming up this week revolve more around current local music. I’m stoked about that, as checking out new music is definitely my favorite thing, but it sure was nice to spend the weekend (and Sunday night in particular) lost in a beautiful haze of nostalgia.
Line Up:
Venue: Varsity Theater
Smell-O-Meter: Nothing Notable
Average Age of the Crowd: 35
Crowd Surfers- 0
Stage Divers- 0
Mosh-ability- 2 out of 10
Amount of Beer Spilled On Me While Walking Around- 0
Broken Bones- None Noticed
Spotted Flying Through The Air- Nothing
Fights- None Witnessed
Pukers- 0
Passed Out People- 0
Idiots Taken Out By Security – 0
How Many Times I’ve Seen These Bands Before (or at least how many times I can remember)-
Hellogoodbye – 2 in recent memory– Probably closer to 12 overall
Boys Night Out – I know I saw them at least once back in the day
Armor For Sleep – 6
Celebrity Sightings – None
Overall Score – 9 out of 10
Show on Deck — DUG / Moon Pussy / Church Fire / E.T.
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